New poll says there’s even a generation gap on immigration.

A new poll by The New York Times/CBS News indicates that A Generation Gap Over Immigration exists with Baby Boomers siding with older Americans while those born in the mid-1980’s and 1990’s are much more tolerant on immigration. The news story also mentions a Brookings Institute report on the State of Metropolitan America, which says that Arizona has the largest cultural generation gap between older Arizonans and children under 18. The spread is 26 percentage points.

“. . .a more tolerant generation.”

This latest news is hardly surprising, as younger generations, having grown up in more diverse, heterogeneous contexts are increasingly in the forefront of societal and cultural change. Indeed, this latest poll is consistent with earlier surveys. For example, a 2007 report covered by USATODAY.com quotes Scott Keeter of the Pew Research Center on the so-called Millenial Generation, Generation Y, saying of them, “This is a more tolerant generation than its predecessors.” See Gen Y’s attitudes differ from parents’.

And according to a White Paper produced by talent services company, Princeton One, “Generation Y is the most ethnically diverse generation in history, with only 61 percent of its members identifying themselves as “Caucasian.” This generation’s social circles are also the most diverse with respect to religion and race. Only seven percent of Gen Yers say that all of their friends are of the same race or religion.”

Looking forward.

What this means is simply this. Consistent with earlier generations, including the Boomers who came of age and transformationally made the 1960’s the socially-conscious, culturally liberalizing decade, the 12-to-20-somethings are today manifesting similar idealistic traits toward culture and society.

But does this idealism represent a sustainable cultural and societal shift in attitudes? Or like prior generations, will youthful idealism be too soon buffeted by the shoals of age, obligation, and sinecure?

While it will remain an open question whether or not Generation Y sustains its present more open, tolerant, and daresay, more enlightened points of view, its more pronounced ethnically and socially diverse makeup may portend a different outcome from past maturing generations.

Unlike the once-idealistic Boomers, as the Millenials grow older, they may yet find themselves continuing to refuse an alignment with their aging, less tolerant predecessors.